Libya: Government, rebels in talks

Published July 4th, 2011 - 14:13 GMT

The Libyan government has held meetings abroad with representatives of the rebels to try to reach a peaceful deal.

The Libyan government has held meetings abroad with representatives of the rebels to try to reach a peaceful deal, a spokesman for Muammar Gaddafi's government said on Monday. According to Moussa Ibrahim, meetings had taken place in Italy, Egypt and Norway and were witnessed by representatives of those countries' governments. He said talks were still going on.

Meanwhile, Turkey froze Libya's holdings in a Turkish bank on Monday, a day after it recognized rebel leaders as the country's legitimate representatives. Turkey's banking regulatory fund said, according to the AP, it was temporarily controlling Libyan Foreign Bank's 62 percent stake in Turkey's Arap Turk Bankasi A.S..

Ankara on Sunday also formally withdrew its ambassador in Tripoli, according to the Official Gazette. Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said the ambassador has been reassigned a post in Ankara and it was not known when a new ambassador for Libya would be named.